The Baja Bash? No, it’s the Carolina Crash!

 I got back from AK during the first week of August. We stuck around Charleston for about a week or so, but consistent temperatures in the upper 90’s chased us north pretty quickly. Basically, the first favorable forecast we got for the ride up to NC, we took.  Unfortunately, the SE wind that was called […]

The taming of the beast

When I think back of what I wanted to be when I grew up several things come to mind. ‘Princess’ is right up there. Carpenter, cop, you name it. Refrigeration mechanic wasn’t on my list. But fate had a different plan for me. I returned to the boat from a 2 months stay in Germany […]

Unexpected Blessings, Part I & II

Did your mum ever tell you not go get in a car with strangers? Well, I politely disagree. Not that I do this on a regular basis, but boy, this year seems to be one to meet new people, meet amazing people and get a new sense of myself. I’ll skip the first getting in […]

Magic in the Caribbean

We hung around the San Blas for as long as we could, but the calendar finally dictated that we get going. We needed to get the boat situated up in the US prior to my late spring/early summer season, so we finally got a slight easterly shift in the trades and took off from the […]

The In-Between

The In-Between Most people go cruising for longer times, are always together and take things slow. We aren’t most people. We are part-time cruisers. For about 5 – 6 months per year we enjoy the cruising life, yet we usually move faster than others, because of the other 6 – 7 months. ‘Winter on the […]

A good man, lost too soon

A sailing blog is an odd place for a eulogy, but a tribute is in order. My dad died yesterday. He was only 70. He was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. He had a large tumor removed from his lung and was given the ‘all clear’ by his medical team, but it had unfortunately […]

The Challenges of having a Schedule

You know how they say a cruiser should never have a schedule? True, but sometimes unavoidable. Having a schedule makes things inevitably more challenging, but it’s doable, as we proved in the last 2 months. After completing the Baja Haha and a lightning fast trip to Puerto Vallarta, we had a lot of work to […]

To my PV friends

I want to take a moment and thank all my PV friends for being the wonderful people you are. When I first arrived in Paradise I felt truly lost. Leaving Germany and everything I knew to move to Seattle was hard. I never really settled and made friends there. Life was challenging. When TJ proposed to […]

Musings of a convert to performance sailing

So, now that we’ve got over a thousand miles on the boat, I think that it’s time for a little reflection on our transition to a performance boat. To this point, switching to a very powerful, light boat has not been difficult for us. All of the sailing that either one of us has ever […]